Ms. Vanderwel's Room

Hey Everyone! Take a look at our learning this week : ) In ELAL we have continued to learn about visualizing and how it can help us to better understand what we are reading. The students did a whole group visualizing activity in which some volunteers came up to the whiteboard and drew what they were imagining while listening to the story "In the Small, Small Pond'. After they drew their picture they talked about what they drew and the class also contributed some details that they envisioned. Students were also challenged to add a few key words that stood out to them from the story. Seeing what other students are visualizing helps students to expand their own drawings to include more details.  In math, students learned about the concepts of symmetry and how to sort 2D shapes based on their attributes. An attribute is a characteristic of a shape such as the number of sides/corners, size, colour, thickness, shape etc. Symmtery refers to something that is the same on both sides li...

Hello and Happy Friday! Here's a peek at our week : )  In ELAL students have been working on developing their visualization skills. Students have learned that visualizing isn't just about seeing pictures in our head but involved all 5 of our senses . When we visualize we also think about the sounds we hear, what we feel (textures, temperature, feelings) and even what we might taste. We also draw on our previous experiences and knowledge to help us more fully visualize the text we are listening to. Students listened to a description of a lollipop. They visualized the size of the lollipop, its shape, colour, flavour and more. Then they shared their descriptions with the class. Being able to visualize while reading and listening to stories is an important skill to develop good comprehension of text.  In math, we began a new unit on geometry. The students brainstormed different shapes that they know then we listened to a story entitled " The Greedy Triangle ". In this st...

Hello Friends! Happy New Year and Happy first week back! I hope you all had a lovely break. The students have been excited to be back and busy learning. Here's a peek at what we have been up to. In ELAL, the students began working on developing their visualization skills. Visualization is an important skill that enables students to better understand what they are reading. They listented to a story entitled 'Napi and the Rock' and as they listened they drew pictures of what they seeing in their head. This story is a Blackfoot legend about the Big Rock erratic in Okotokes, Alberta. The students were stunned when they saw how big this rock really is compared to how they envisioned when we were reading.     In math, students finished learning about a number of addition and subtraction strategies and completed a short assessment  showing their ability to use the strategies we have learned to solve math equations with sums and differences to 20. The students in grade two contin...